How to Tap Dance: Paradiddles

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[assataknox]

This is very helpful for our upcoming recital

[songsofcornwall]

Yep, re syncopation: I take ballroom classes and tap, and both teachers use `syncopation` when they mean the steps just go faster (in Tahlia`s example, as you say, twice as fast!)
Dance teachers/dancers also use 8-beat count-ins, and measure tempos in bars-per-minute rather than beats-per-minute, but you get used to it. I still love my teecherz!

[karmcwon]

First off, cool. Thanks for the refresher in the basic steps.

Problem, though. I'm not sure exactly what the correct count or what syncopation would be, but you change something up without explaining it. And I think you're counting wrong in the beginning of the part you call syncopation, which leads to this problem.

One important thing to note is this: in the "syncopation" part, you start the count with the heel dig as 1(accented beat), just as you've been teaching it. But you then almost immediately change to the heel drop (on the left foot) as the accented beat.

You count "1 & a x, 2 & a x, 3 &..." --where x is a beat you just don't bother to include in the count. Nope. You can't do that. That's where you change to the heel drop as the 1 (or accented 2, 3, etc.in that case.)

When you change halfway through that part to "5 e & a, 6 e & a..." you are counting correctly. (I still don't think that's syncopation, as Lev points out, but leave that for now.) If you're starting the count on a different part of the step, you need to specifically indicate that. Otherwise, especially for beginners, it's confusing.

Note that when you speed it up even more, starting a 1:36, you don't count the 1. You don't start your count-aloud until the 5 (R heel drop), but if you had, you would have had to start 1 on the heel drop, not the heel dig to get to the 5 on the heel drop (not the heel dig) when you start counting at 1:52.

Just watch your video and I'm sure you'll see what I mean. Don't you agree you need to say which part of a step is on which beat and that you switch from what you taught in the beginning without telling the student (viewer)?

[levteiblum]

She is a nice, clear, easy-to-follow teacher, but she does not understand what the definition of syncopation is. (Actually, she does not define it; she just says the word.) She starts out the Paradiddle with counting 1-2-3-4. Then, she does it twice as fast, with counting 1-&-2-&-3-&-4-&. (The numerals are all the same tempo, of course, and the &s are at the half, in time, of each beat.) Then she dances four times as fast: 1-ta-ta-ta, 2-ta-ta-ta, 3-ta-ta-ta, 4-ta-ta-ta. (Same application as with the 7s, which is: same tempo throughout.) Every beat and every smaller subdivision (in 2 or 4) is accounted for. This is definitely NOT syncopation.
Syncopation occurs when there is NOTHING heard on a strong beat (particularly 1, and then 3), OR when a weak beat (any & or ta is emphasized.
Otherwise, she is fine.

[wilsonn]

i dont like how fast she moves. i would enjoy it if she did it slow for a bit longer and gradually increased speeds rather than how she actually did it..

[poetic_justice]

This lady does not know the definition of "syncopation."